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tv   KTVU Morning News  FOX  March 17, 2011 6:00am-7:00am PDT

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in japan helicopters are still dumping sea water on an earthquake damaged nuclear plant. the other efforts underway to prevent a meltdown. a big chunk of highway 1 has collapsed and tumbled towards the pacific ocean. what crews are saying about how long it will be closed. >> reporter: the waves at mavericks have taken another life this morning. new details about the frantic
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efforts to pull the surfer from the water. good morning to you. welcome to thursday. it's march 17th. it's st. patrick's day. i'm dave clark. >> good morning. i'm pam cook. thank you for joining us. let's check in with steve paulson. how does the weather look today? good morning, pamela, dave, clear skies. patch or two of fog, some clouds to the north but over us right now clear and cold. 30s showing up. something we haven't seen for a while. sunshine for a while and then partly cloudy skies. if you're northward there are a few showers starting to move through. we'll talk about that plus a big change in our weather for friday. now sal with an update on traffic. steve, right now on westbound 24 looks pretty good getting up to oakland. there are no major issues and the roads are dry in case you're just joining us the commute is much improved from what it has been during the week because of the dry roads. looking now at a picture of interstate 880 this live look near the oakland airport if you're trying to catch a flight
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right now the roads are clear on the way there. 6:01. back to dave and pam. well, in japan they have now suspended helicopters that were dumping sea water on the earthquake damaged nuclear plant to try to prevent a meltdown. they want to now evaluate whether the unusual effort has had any effect. they're also racing to restore power to the plant so they can reactivate the cooling system. the u.s. government is now chartering airports to evacuate u.s. citizens because of the rising radiation levels. volunteering air fares for family members of government employees. closely watching the movement of the radioactive plume coming from the crippled reactors. it's churning across the pacific ocean and expected to reach the islands south of alaska some time today. then the plume is expected to reach southern california late tomorrow. now the health experts emphasize radiation levels are
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plunging as that plume moves across the ocean. at worse they say, health consequences here in the u.s. would be extremely minor. now the environmental protection agency is installing more radiation monitors here in california just to keep track of any possible radiation coming from japan. ktvu's jade hernandez is live now at uc berkeley to tell us about these extra precautions. good morning, jade. >> reporter: good morning. we are live at cal this morning. and we wanted to bring you here to the campus because a professor is here at the university taking precautions. we watched him and the nuclear engineering department show us a device that measures the amount of radioactive material in the air. he was set to install it on the roof of one of the buildings here on campus. he's independently installing this device but it won't be the only one in the bay area. you're looking at we wanted to show you another device which has been set up in san francisco. that device is located at the top of the bay area air quality
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building. now i want to show you in this video that you can see here this is the professor in the nuclear engineering department. and he was showing us that device yesterday. as i mentioned he's set to install it on the roof of one of the buildings on campus. it's not the only one in the bay area. there is another device which has been in san francisco for years. that device is located at the top of the bay area air quality building. there are 12 of these monitoring stations in the state of california. the u.s. environmental protection agency has just announced it will also install 40 additional radiation air monitors here on the west coast. we spoke to san francisco mayor ed lee about his city's monitoring station. >> it's been up there for quite some time. and it's one that i think is invaluable to us especially now with tsunami and the nuclear reactor and partial meltdowns that have occurred in japan. it is able to detect air particles as that far away. it was able to detect particles
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that occurred when there was nuclear testing devices that were exploded in north korea. >> reporter: coming up berkeley and san francisco aren't the only cities that are taking precautions when it comes to gauging radiationful we'll touch base with another east bay city. they are informing their residents. we'll explain how coming up. reporting live from berkeley this morning, jade hernandez, ktvu channel 2 news. there are no threats of a tsunami this morning, but there was another earthquake that hit overnight in the pacific ocean. the magnitude 6.5 quake struck near the island nation. no serious injuries or damage have been reported but it is in the pacific ring of fire in the arc of earthquake faults around the pacific ocean where most of the world's earthquakes and volcanic activity occur. time now 6:05. in other news an accomplished big wave surfer has died at one of the bay area's best known
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surfing beaches. claudine wong has more now on when the surfer went under and the frantic efforts to save him. >> reporter: good morning, dave. we've been trying to get a hold of friends this morning but obviously it's been a very difficult night and very difficult time for the entire surfing community. that's why we've moved from mavericks over here to pacifica because this is the spot where a lot of surfers show up early in the morning. this entire surfing community is still mourning. we know there are maverick surfers here in pacifica. certainly everyone will be talking about that. we are learning more details this morning about what exactly happened at mavericks yesterday. this is video from the scene. he actually lives in hawaii. he was staying with a friend in santa cruz and apparently out at mavericks surfing all day. he was out late in the afternoon trying to catch a last set of waves when he got rolled. apparently a couple waves came through as he went under and he was under for about 20 minutes before he was pulled from the
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water about 6:30 last night. he is a professional surfer. this morning we found an interview on the web done just last winter. in it he talks about being young and about surfing the wave. >> i just want to try to get a big barrel every year out here. you know my goal i would say flying by the seat of my pants. i want to enjoy life and have fun surfing you know while i'm still young. >> reporter: his life is the second loss. a surfer also from hawaii died in 1994 at mavericks and still a memorial on the beach to him. he only surfed mavericks a few times first was last november. he leaves behind a wife and two young daughters. he was 35 years old. live in pacifica, ktvu channel 2 news. 6:07 is the time right now. let's check on traffic now.
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the commute on highway 24 is going to be doing pretty well this morning if you're driving let's say from the lafayette area into oakland and driving on the oakland side. as a matter of fact, westbound 24 looks pretty good here driving up to that rain ever area westbound 24 heading down the hill towards college avenue and the 580 interchange. a nice drive and no major problems here. also at the bay bridge toll plaza westbound that traffic is looking good as you drive into the corridor there. it is light once you get on to the bridge it looks good getting into san francisco. and if you're driving across the bay on the san mateo bridge, traffic is moving along very nicely getting over to the peninsula. this morning chp has an important warning for anyone driving down to big sur on the coast of monterey county. a huge stretch of highway 1 near hurricane point is now closed indefinitely. chp ordered closure last night
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after a massive mud slide took out 40 feet of highway 1 and pushed it into the pacific ocean. at this point cal trans can't even do repair work because the area is too dangerous. the closure is expected to last at least a few days and possibly much longer. now at 6:08 let's go to steve. thank you, sir. clear sky this morning. if you haven't stepped outside yet and many of you haven't it's colder. 30s. temperatures under clear skies right on down. so we start off clear, cold, some patchy fog. but really it's mainly clear and cold. now there's some rain to the north here but sunshine then we'll go partly cloudy today. tomorrow though everything changes. rain and wind moves in rather cold system dropping down from the gulf of alaska. possibility of thunder and the weekend -- i'm not here to rain on your parade but off and on rain turning much cooler. in fact, snow levels will come down maybe around 2500 feet. the moisture that was over us for about 48 hours coming up from the southwest finally gets pushed south because that system dropping downright in the middle of your screen from
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the gulf of alaska. that's our rain from friday has pushed it right there. we get clearing behind that but just a tiny system caught in between which is producing some rain from about point arena north. so lake county, maybe northern sonoma county could see a few light showers here this morning. colder too. a lot of 30s this morning. there's the system as it clips the northern part of the cape north especially eureka, crescent city. the tail end drags across lake county. look at some of the lows. it's been a long time since i've mentioned this. sonoma 37. we've been mid-50s for the longest time but we lose that cloud cover and temperatures really take a tumble here. 30s for many. santa rosa napa, fairfield, concord. redwood city says 40 but i'll bet upper 30s close by. one system is on its way but today's our transition day. we'll get a mostly sunny morning and then a partly cloudy afternoon unless you're
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apogean north of sonoma county. few showers possible. overall today looks like a beautiful day clouds will be increasing. for the sierra today would be the best day to go. starting tomorrow morning and goes through 5:00 a.m. saturday. the snowfall will start at snow level start out around 4500 feet but again down around 2500 probably by saturday night. cold morning here. sun then clouds later on. again, showers to the north. but not for most. 50s, upper 50s or low to mid- 60s. so our lows are running 15 degrees cooler than we've seen the past couple mornings which means it will be harder for us to warm up too much. rain and wind move in friday and then off and on rain plus colder temperatures as we go into the weekend. dave and pam. time now 6:11. now to a story you'll only see here on channel 2. san francisco police are out there searching for the criminals blamed for a string of thefts that target storage locker. police say the burglars have broken into eleven storage
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lockers at public storage on marin street. you're looking at surveillance video of the woman believed to be the ring leader. investigators are still trying to determine other locations where these burglars may have committed crimes. >> possibly the ring even extends as far down south as los angeles or up to sacramento. >> the woman rented a storage locker and used it to store the stolen items. investigators are also searching for accomplices suspected of steeling more than 100 items. a new job for hillary clinton. we know what she doesn't want to do for a living but she's raising more questions than answers. and signs the united states doesn't like the way japan is handling the nuclear crisis.
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good morning to you. welcome back. time now 6:14. the u.s. and japanese officials are at odds now over the handling of the nuclear crisis in japan. our reporter allison burns is in washington d.c. with the very latest on why the obama administration is so concerned. allison. >> reporter: dave, the information from japanese agencies dealing with the nuclear crisis has been confusing and often contradictory. president obama is assuring japan's prime minister the u.s. will help in any way needed. and dozens of u.s. nuclear experts have in japan. tensions are escalating as the situation deteriorates. one expert said the helicopter water drop on the nuclear
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plants was clueless and floundering. u.s. officials say the evacuation zone should be 50 miles, but so far the japanese government is only ordering people to leave who live within 12 miles of the damaged reactors. >> i think now our experts are probing deeply to get every piece of information they possibly can so we can make our own judgments. >> reporter: japan's airports are packed as people try to leave the country worried the crisis will get worse. the european union's energy leader is quoted as saying the situation is out of control. reporting live from washington d.c., allison burns, ktvu channel 2 news. all right. and for the very latest on the crisis in japan at any time you can go to our channel 2 website at ktvu.com. just click on the japan quake tab. four reporters from the new york times are missing in libya. editors for the paper say they were last heard from on tuesday. the new york times says if it turns out that the reporters were captured by military
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forces, the libyan government has promised to release them unharmed. an american cia contractor just released from prison in pakistan has left the country. raymond davis was accused of killing two pakistan men who he claims tried to rob him. pakistan officials say the u.s. paid more than $2 million ransom for his release. family members of those killed announced that they were dropping charges in exchange for money. time now 6:16. secretary of state hillary clinton says she will not continue in her current job even if president obama wins re- election next year. secretary clinton says she plans to step away from her job by early 2013. and she says she doesn't want to run for president or vice president either. back at home state regulators are threatening to fine pg&e up to $1 million a day after pg&e handed over incomplete safety records. now, the officials are also considering ordering pg&e to reduce pressure on additional
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pipelines. the california puc requested some key safety documents after the big disaster in san bruno. regulators are expected to vote on any proposed fines next thursday. a san francisco business has violated the city's minimum wage law four times more than any other in the city. the san francisco examiner reports that the owner of the french laundry says that he has struggled to pay the city's required $9.92 an hour. he says most of his competitors in marin, oakland and south san francisco only pay the state minimum of $8 an hour. the owner has paid more than $177,000 in fines and penalties. time now 6:18. city council made what they're calling an unpopular but very necessary decision to help cut the city's $1.5 million budget deficit. last night the city council voted to permanently close down one of their two fire stations. it's already closed ten days of
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every month. this decision will save the city about $900,000 a year. but it's worrying residents and the fire chief. >> they could be waiting for an additional six to seven minutes for a fire engine. >> very painful. nobody wants to close a fire station. >> well, no firefighters are expected to lose their jobs, however the city council also decided it won't fill the currently vacant jobs on the police force. right now 18 minutes after 6:00. go back over to sal. how does the commute look, sal? actually, it looks pretty good. in case you're just joining us, you don't have to worry about some of the things we've worried about in the last few days when it was wet. this is actually been a pretty decent commute as we take a live look at the grade traffic is moving along very nicely. heading down to fremont and by the way in case you're wondering about highway 580 nearby, we did have an earlier crash on 580. that has been removed. this is a look at northbound 101 in san francisco.
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that traffic looks very nice approaching the 80 split. we're off to a very nice start. this is highway 24 in oakland. so, again, as you can see the roads being dry really made a dramatic difference in the first hours of the commute. now this is a time when it starts to get busier. so we'll see what happens in the next few minutes. 6:19. let's go to steve. sal, thank you, sir. we have clear skies. yes, clear skies. patchy fog but not much left. now there are some clouds and showers to the north. but overall we start off clear and cold. 30s out there this morning. rather calm conditions. because we've lost the cloud cover and any breeze temperatures decide to take a pretty good tumble here down about 15 degrees. there's a system there along the coast that could produce a few showers to the north but there they are. point arena right now. still a little off the sonoma coast. geyserville, clover dale. look at the lows though. 30s, 40s, allotted of upper 30s and temperatures because of
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right there that cloud cover disappears and we are in the between because that system diving right down the middle of your screen is going to give us a pretty good rain and colder pattern into friday and much of the weekend. cold morning, sunshine for a while. then partly cloudy skies. and to the north few showers are possible. upper 50s and low 60s. we have to make up about 15- degree difference on our lows from this morning compared to yesterday. so therein lies kind of a cooler forecast even with more sunshine here for a while. rain and wind and colder temperatures arrive for friday. we'll take it right into your weekend. looks like kind of showery pattern on saturday and then another system for more rain and wind moves in on sunday. pam and dave. in the last hour the federal government reports consumer prices jumped a half a percent last month. most of the increase comes not surprisingly from the higher cost of gas and food. overall consumer prices are up more than 2% in the last 12 months. united continental holdings reports a "measurable decline"
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in air traffic from the u.s. to japan since the earthquake there. but the airline as well as delta and american are flying their full scheduled flights to tokyo. united and delta are also offering full refunds for travelers who had tokyo on their itineraries and waiving fees for changing the ticket. full-time now 6:21. we report san francisco and 49ers are inching closer to a deal hawaii this will mean for santa clara's hopes for a new stadium there. and the world health organization is telling shoppers many are concerned about the safety of food imported from japan. ougog t bk. atst fwa. wi cseuidesi yr arho, u stnaa cte, wi cseuidesi hise a de. yr arho,
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good morning. right now traffic is moving along pretty well on bay area bridges. if you're on the bay bridge approach we're getting a little bit more of a crowd but nothing to worry about yet. san mateo, golden gate and richmond bridge traffic still looking good. 6:25. let's go back to the desk. okay, sal, thank you. the city of san francisco and the 49ers reportedly are inching closer to a deal that would end their long legal battle. this would allow the 9ers to leave candle stick park as soon as 2014 and possibly move south to santa clara. in exchange the deal would stop the 49ers from pursuing a $60
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million claim over the run down conditions at candle stick park. san francisco is still fighting to save the 9ers and have them play at a new stadium not far from candle stick. well, the crisis in japan is sparking some safety concerns about food here in the united states. there are some concerns over whether food imported from japan has been exposed to harmful radiation. the world health organization says there's been no evidence of contamination outside japan. but one doctor from san francisco says it's not just the radiation that can harm the food chain. >> when you take all of humans waste, that means their houses, their toxic waste, their dumping grounds and throw it into the ocean and mix it up, you're going to have some contamination. it's going to take us a while to figure out how much and how long it's going to stay. >> 4% of the u.s. food supply comes from japan. the fda says it has screening plans in place to make sure the
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food is safe. time now 6:26. well, the university of california's warning students brace yourself for more tuition hikes. regents learned the ten campus system could lose up to $1 billion in state funding if the governor's tax extensions are not approved. now uc president says such drastic cuts could also lead to layoffs and reduced enrollments. the regents wrap up their three day meeting today in san francisco. but it's going to be a couple of months before any budget decisions are made. uc employees picketed in san francisco as well as berkeley yesterday. they say the university has failed to fully fund their pension. and they say a proposed increase in employee health care premiums would work out to a 10% pay cut. >> i like working for uc, but i'm tired of seeing the executives vote themselves bonuses while they're asking the lowest wageworkers to take
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cuts. >> however, some california may not be sympathetic to public employees. there's a new field poll that shows 42% of voters think public pensions are too generous. time now 6:27. it is a desperate race against time to prevent a nuclear meltdown in japan. we're going to take you live to tokyo for a run down on the late breaking developments. >> reporter: and what we're learning this morning about the wave that took the life of the young professional surfer. more on that when the morning news continues.
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top of the morning to you. lucky the leprechaun. general mills ringing the opening bell. they just rang the bell in new york this morning. little bit of the luck of the irish hopefully for the stock
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market today. there's some actual economic news helping things out. but it's sort of mixed news as well. job numbers are pretty good report that the consumer prices report a bit disappointing. we'll see what happens. watch those numbers as they open up. all right. we'll say good morning to you. thank you for joining us here on the ktvu morning news. thursday march 17th. happy st. paddy's day. i'm dave clark. >> good morning. i'm pam cook. time now is 6:30. in the news for you right now we're still watching japan. they are racing to restore power to a nuclear power plant that was damaged by last week's earthquake. nuclear reactors at this plant have been overheating since the quake and tsunami knocked out the power to the reactor's cooling system and also destroyed the back up generators. emergency crews have been trying to cool those reactors by dumping water on them by helicopter. but we don't know if these efforts are even working. scientists here on the west coast are closely watching the movement of a radioactive plume coming from the crippled
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japanese reactors. it's churning across the pacific ocean and expected to hit islands south of alaska some time today. now that plume is then expected to reach southern california late tomorrow. but health experts emphasize that radiation levels are plunging as that plume moves across the ocean. at worst they say health consequences here in the u.s. would be extremely minor. now the environmental protection agency has 12 radiation monitors across california to keep tabs on radiation levels. now with the current crisis in japan, they are adding more. ktvu channel 2 reporter jade hernandez at uc berkeley this morning where they have also set up a radiation monitor. jade. >> reporter: that's right. the epa's actually going to add 40 additional monitors on the west coast. we're live at cal this morning. and this is what we wanted to show you. we wanted to show you professor here at the university. he is taking precautions. we watched the professor and
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the nuclear engineering department yesterday as he showed us a device that measures the amount of radioactive material in the air. he was set to install it on the roof of one of the buildings here on campus. he's independently installing this device. but it won't be the only one in the bay area. you're looking at another device which has been up in san francisco for years. the device is located at the top of the bay area air quality building. there are 12 of these monitoring stations in the state of california. and the u.s. environmental protection agency has just announced it will install 40 additional radiation air monitors here on the west coast. we spoke to san francisco's mayor ed lee about his city's monitoring station. >> it's been up there for quite some time. and it's one that i think is invaluable to us especially now with the tsunami and the nuclear reactor partial meltdowns that have occurred in japan. it is able to detect air particles as that far away. it was able to detect particles that occurred when there was
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nuclear testing devices that were exploded in north korea. >> reporter: now, the emergency services is located in fairfield. it has advised emergency responders on how to react and how to answer questions when residents do have questions about japanese fallout. i just touched base with the fire department in vallejo. their spokesperson told me their responders are being educated just so that they know how to answer questions when residents do have questions about what's going on. reporting live; jade hernandez, ktvu channel 2 news. so far americans have donated far less money to help the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in japan than they have in other recent disasters. charityies in the u.s. raised $296 million in donations during the first seven days following the earthquake in haiti last year.
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nearly $250 million in the earthquake of the victims of the indian ocean tsunami in 2004. experts say it's probably because japan is viewed as being a wealthy country. ktvu.com has information on how you can help the relief efforts in japan. just look for the japan quake tab right on our home page. time now 6:34. in santa rosa a blind couple was hit by a car while walking in a crosswalk. this happened tuesday night on west third street while they were walking to dinner. 49-year-old eric smiley has a broken leg and fractured ribs. his girlfriend suffered a sprained ankle. now officials say alcohol doesn't appear to be a factor in the crash but it is still under investigation. and we have an update on a bank robbery that happened at a benicia supermarket. now police released this surveillance photo of the suspect at the ray lee's on south hampton road. officials say he approached a bank teller and demanded cash.
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this happened at that rayly's on tuesday. look at the photo. if you have any information about the suspect, contact benicia police. we are learning more this morning about what happened to that professional surfer who died at mavericks. ktvu's claudine wong has more on this tragedy at the bay area's best known surfing beach. claudine. >> reporter: well, good morning, pam. we have moved from mavericks here to pacifica because of the large surfing community here. certainly we know that entire community is mourning this morning. we do expect to see some folks out here as the sun begins to rise. he was a well-known professional surfer from hawaii. he actually had only started surfing at mavericks late last year. but until late in the afternoon yesterday all reports were that things were pretty incredible out there with good conditions. it was a day however with a tragic ending. this is video from the scene yesterday as emergency crews were on scene. now he had reportedly been surfing 40 to 60-foot waves when he went under and was held under as two more waves rolled
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in. a friend who was there told the santa cruz sent knoll that a friend went looking for him on a personal water craft but didn't find him until about 20 minutes later near the mouth of the pillar point harbor which is almost a mile away from where the waves break. i've been showing you this morning of a web interview he talked about his dream of being paid so surf, always looking for the big wave and support he gets from his wife. >> my wife is super supportive. she works too. she knows that i love to surf. if i didn't surf i would be a different person probably. >> reporter: he is the second life lost at mavericks. mark foo died in 1994 while also serving at mackives. he was also from hawaii. a memorial to him on the beach. he had to be rescued in late january but survived his experience at mavericks. he leaves behind a wife and two young daughters. he was 35 years old. again, out here in pacifica trying to get reaction this
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morning. also trying to get into contact with some of his friends out here. we know he was staying in santa cruz but certainly a very, very difficult time for everyone. live here in pacifica, claudine wong, ktvu channel 2 news. time now 6:37. today the judge in the barry bonds perjury case will review several final legal issues before the trial starts next week. yesterday prosecutors released transcripts of voice mail messages barry bonds left for his former mistress. most of them show barry bonds angerly demanding to know where kimberly bell was. prosecutors claim those recordings are evidence of so- called roid rage. barry bonds' lawyers say they're simply lovers spats caught on tape. 6:38 is the time right now. sal is checking in on a traffic in oakland. how does it look, sal? getting a little busier but still looks okay especially for those of you who drive through the tunnel getting from oaring da to oakland. this is a live look at westbound 24 coming on down the hill towards interstate 580 and eventually to the bay bridge
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toll plaza where a lot of people end up at the toll plaza. it's getting more crowded but nothing too major. at the golden gate bridge toll southbound traffic looks good coming from marin county. driving in on vallejo freeway westbound 80, richmond also looking good still. now as we want to move it over to the contra costa area here and go to highway 4. you can see a little bit of red showing up now just above antioch there. westbound traffic slow. but okay at concord and walnut creek. 6:39. let's go to steve. sal, thank you, sir. first thing you'll notice this morning it's cold out there. in fact temperatures about 10 to almost 20 degrees colder this morning than we had yesterday. yesterday we had cloud cover and light rain in the morning and then just clouds holding on. we're seeing a lot of 30s here under clear skies. now there is a little piece of a system just clipping extreme northern sonoma county and napa county. show you in a second. cold morning. 30s, sunshine for a while and then partly cloudy skies.
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tomorrow everything changes. a rather strong cold system moves in for rain and wind. it will turn much colder especially friday night into saturday. possibility of thundershowers. days little longer. angle of the sun higher and weekend off and on rain. it looks much cooler, maybe another stronger system coming in on sunday. but first the one that we'll deal with tomorrow is right there dropping straight down out of the north. that's also driving that cloud cover that was over us yesterday sends it south. system moving into the north is producing some rain. it's very light stuff but it's there. you can see it just moving in. there is a little line there that's right off. draw a line from about probably bay, santa rosa, windsor, north. farther south you are you don't have to worry about it. some of these lows, bethel island, sonoma 38. mill valley 38. we haven't had 30s in a while and there are plenty to go around including santa rosa,
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napa, fairfield, concord, livermore, san raphael at 38 and not far from redwood city woodside, men lo park palo alto also in the upper 30s. good looking system out there. that's going to play into friday weather. today we're in between systems unless you're to the north. and you might keep an eye on the sky there. few showers could pop up. it's a cold morning. then sunshine for a while. then we'll get some partly cloudy skies. mostly cloudy and cool though north of santa rosa as the system moves by. for the sierra travelers today is the best day to get out of dodge to head up there or get out of the mountains because winter storm warning starts tomorrow morning at 5:00 a.m. and goes through 5:00 a.m. saturday. this is a very cold system. snow level starts out around 4500 or 4,000 feet. and drops to 2500 feet we'll get some partly cloudy skies. again showers north of santa rosa upper 50s low 60s even though we get more sunshine today the lows are as we said 15 degrees colder. so end result is we'll still be
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some low 60s probably at best. rain and wind move in friday morning and friday afternoon. looks like moderate to heavy rain possible. cold showery pattern on saturday. then another round of rain and wind on sunday. dave and pam. well, it's one pricey puppy with a price tag that's more than $1 million. we'll show you the picture. >> reporter: how this is going to help that coming up when the morning news continues.
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well, good morning to you. welcome back. here's a quick look at some top stories we're following for you. some experts here in the u.s. believe the situation in japan is more critical than japanese authorities are revealing. the united states is telling american citizens not to go within 50 miles of the damaged nuclear plant in japan where japan officials are sticking to a 12-mile evacuation zone. the new york times says it's holding out hope that four of its journalists now missing in libya are still alive and in the custody of the libyan government. the new york times hasn't heard from them since tuesday. and state lawmakers will meet again today. they'll take up two disputed parts of the governor's budget proposal. they'll consider whether to eliminate redevelopment agencies and also the issue of a special election to extend
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income and vehicle taxes. well, tens of thousands of people drive through it each day. and this morning work on the scald cot tunnel will reach a significant milestone. ktvu's kraig debro is in oakland to talk about what's happening with the fourth bore project in just about three hours right, kraig? >> reporter: about three hours from now, pam. construction projects don't always start on time. we're on a bridge above highway 24. this is bore number three operating. and this is bore number four. we know what's behind that a lot of earth and mud. they began to dig that out already but work gets underway later this morning when they bring in heavy equipment and start pounding away. they already started on the other side but what they're going to be doing this morning is they're going to be trying to pile drive their way through the hole to make a fourth bore. they already started to make this hole about a week ago today. the entire project got underway
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last august. the $420 million project will take about four years to build. it includes two smaller projects that are supposed to improve traffic flow through the areas in the tunnels. about 160,000 vehicles per day travel through the three tunnels. cal trans says there's a lot of boring to do before they finish. and a lot of money to be spent. so far from what we know this project is on time right now. but, again, it's going to take another three years to complete. and when it is finished the people who drive through bore number three, bore number two, bore number one are going to be happy that there's a fourth bore. live in oakland, kraig debro, ktvu channel 2 news. nasa has a plan to deal with the amount of debris that's floating around in space above the earth. the old rockets, abandoned satellites and missile shrapnel sometimes lumped together in the category of space junk is a danger to the international space station and satellites circling the globe.
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now scientists are looking into using lasers to nudge some of the 20,000 pieces of space junk slightly further out into space. time now 6:47. is a dog worth $1 million? one dog reportedly is. take a look at this red mast if. beautiful dog. sold for $1,000,00600,000. the dog is expected to weigh about 180 pounds. very expensive appetite too. he likes to eat things like sea cucumbers. back here at home bay area resident who is have a little bit too much green beer or other drinks on this st. paddy's day try not to drive home. so says chp. chp and sheriff deputies and police departments all over the bay area are setting up dui check points. they want to cut down on the number of alcohol-related accidents. the drivers who do drink too much are being offered a way to get home safely today. burg injury lawyers sponsoring
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their annual safe and sober cab ride home. adults in san francisco, berkeley, oakland and alameda, you can call a cab to get home. and the law firm will pick up as much as $35 of the tab. also triple a of northern california will tow any car up to five miles for free as long as the driver or the passenger calls a local office and says, hey, i need a tipsy tow. all right. a lot of options. that's good. a lot of people do like to drink on this day in particular. and they start early, right, sal? just don't do it. that's the burning topic on my twitter page. you can access by going to ktvu.com, go to the traffic page and find me on twitter. some people say that st. patrick's day seems like amateur hour and a lot like new year's eve. just remember people not you but other people may be driving unfortunately they may be impaired. be very careful. northbound 280 traffic looks good. it's not a problem during the morning commute. it's more of a thing in the
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afternoon. so just be ware. we're hoping that's not the case of course. westbound bay bridge this is a look at the traffic backing up to about the middle of what used to be that parking lot there. westbound traffic is backed up. that's about an eight minute delay before you actually make it on the the bridge. livermore 580 traffic center lane traffic slowing past the scene. after that dublin and castro valley looks good. let's go to steve. thank you, sir. by the way on twitter sp weather if you have weather information or a weather question or if you're saying it's cold out here, steve. well, it is. not something we've said or had for a while. clear skies will do that. much cooler air mass has moved in compared to 24 and 48 hours ago when we had lows in the mid- ooze. it's a chilly cold morning. sunshine for a while then clouds. now there's a little system to the north. north of sonoma county and napa county. friday's really the bigger change in our pattern.
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rain and wind move in. highs low 50s for many over the weekend. off and on rain for the weekend. colder possible thunderstorms and lowering snow levels. lowering snow levels. today we have morning sun and then afternoon clouds. there's a little system up towards lake county but today's overall mostly sunny. friday rain and wind move in. colder temperatures and possibility again of thunderstorms. days are getting longer here. wouldn't take too much. the system moving right by there see how the tail ends dragging off the sonoma coast. mention that from the bay santa rosa north. not a lot but enough we have to mention it. really the lows bethel island 36. clayton 37. a lot of 38s. mill valley 38. yesterday temperatures about 15 degrees warmer than what we're seeing right now. 30s and 40z across the board. these are low 40z unless you're in san francisco where it's officially 36. system driving downright down out of the gulf of alaska. you can look at it yourself. right there.
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that's going to play into our weather starting friday morning. today we get a break. if you are heading to the sierra today would be a great day to travel because there are no warnings. but there will be tomorrow morning. at 5:00 a.m. and over the next couple days snowfall will be one to three feet or even higher above the 7,000 foot level. snow levels start out around 4,000 end up around 2,000 by sunday morning. cold morning. sun and clouds. showers to the north. again, that's mainly north through santa rosa. 50s and 60s because the lows are 15 degrees cooler this morning. that's why our highs today really don't warm up that much even though we get the sunshine in the morning and then clouds in the afternoon. rain and wind move in on friday. and we'll carry that right into what looks to be a very active weekend. much colder as well. all right. thank you, steve. fed ex earnings are down. the reports this morning shows third quarter earnings at $231 million, but it's down $8 million from the same time last year. many analysts had forecast earnings would rise despite storms and increasing fuel
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prices. last month ups reported better than expected quarterly earnings. checking in on wall street, stocks rebounding a bit. live look at the big board. dow jones up 127 points after suffering one of its worst losses for seven months of the year the dow still down s&p 500 and nasdaq right about flat. it seems like it's every other day up and then down. a lot of volatility in the markets. the alameda county board of supervisors approved another $2 million to provide training for former workers at the numi plant in fremont. more than 2500 former workers are enrolled in retraining programs. time now 6:53. we're going to give you a new view of when that wall of water from that tsunami hit. look at what surveillance cameras captured as a store in
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hawaii was engulfed by the rushing waves. plus giving it their best shot on "american idol." did the bay area finalist seize the moment last night? good morning. westbound 24 getting a little busy now out to the tunnel. could be something going on near the bart station as well. we'll let you know more straight ahead.
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time now 6:56. tsunami from japan caused a lot of damage to one store in hawaii. want to show you some surveillance video. look at this. look at it. the waves crashing through the front door last friday. clothing racks were knocked over, merchandise just washed right into the parking lot after all this. that store was hit by waves for about three and a half hours. all right. go right to sal because we understand you have some breaking news. sal. it's just coming in to us we're just getting live pictures of it. it's a fire near or on a freeway and we're just finding out i'm just looking here as we go. this is live picture of i-35 west. and this fire i'm not sure what it is. i'm not sure where if it's actually a vehicle or if it's something next to the freeway. we're getting these pictures right now. and of course the traffic is
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backing up quickly as they shut that freeway down. so this is on i-35 as you can see the source we're getting it from showing us the flames. we'll try to find out more about this and have more coming up on mornings on 2. back to you. here on mornings on 2 continue to update that story as well. radiation fears growing by the minute as a plume from the japanese reactor slowly moves to the california coast. we'll tell you what health experts are saying. also a deadly tragedy at the bay area's best known surfing beach. the victim very well known to surfing fans. stay right here with us.
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